Imagine receiving your 200 Wine Gang notes a month with an omission: the vintage of every wine we write about. How would you feel? Offended? Frustrated at not knowing which vintage to buy? Short-changed? You're by now beginning to get some sense of how readers of Matt Skinner's The Juice 2010 might have felt when they discovered that the publishers, Mitchell Beazley, had listed a number of New World wines from the 2009 vintage that were not tasted by the author, despite his admission in a statement issued by the publisher that it was 'imperative that I taste all the wines that I recommend'.

In the quiet heart of the countryside where I am at the moment, there is no public transport. The only way I can buy a bottle of wine is to get in my car and drive to the nearest town, where I'm faced with the uninspiring selection of my local supermarket. Am I bothered? On the contrary. I have the entire world of wine at the click of a mouse. For the latest information and news, all I have to do is tune into one of the free content sites, click on one of a number of good wine blogs, or, for exchanging views and information, I can 'socially network' on Facebook or Twitter.

'Wine merchants are generally considered very troublesome; but it is a necessary part of this disagreeable trade to be constantly seeking for orders, even among intimate friends and relatives'. Thomas Shaw, 1864.

Anthony Rose

A warm welcome to all our members.